Elisha & Naaman

Obedience. I really don’t care for that word. Didn’t like it growing up, don’t especially like it now. I have always struggled with being told what to do. “Give me liberty, or give me death”. That sounds better. As Americans, our country was founded on the principle of self-rule, democracy, we all have a say in what happens.

The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is so my story. He was a general in a pagan army who had leprosy, which most often was a death sentence in addition to making the job of running an army a lot more complicated since it was highly contagious. Naaman heard about Elisha, God’s prophet, in Israel and traveled with money and lots of fanfare to impress him and be healed.  Elisha didn’t even come out of the house, just sent word for Naaman to wash 7 times in the muddy Jordan River.

Naaman is insulted, incensed, he had expected some great ceremony with lots of shock and awe. Eventually he relents, obeys and is healed. That is my journey. I always wanted to do the big things and kept waiting for God to lead me to heal, rescue, or save someone. In the meantime I would skip the small stuff so I would be ready for the big stuff.

Well, after years of waiting for the big stuff, I finally realized it was the small stuff that was most important all along. I really wanted to do the big stuff for me, for my glory.  Obedience for me includes doing the small acts of reflecting God’s love to those who are sad or alone or hungry, usually when no one else is looking. It means doing all that God commands me to do, even and especially the little things, not so much because it needs to get done, but because my heart needs to be in submission to Him.

I love the end of verse 14. It says that after washing in the Jordan Naaman’s skin was like that of young boy. God didn’t just make him like he was before leprosy, He made him better! That is what He wants for all His children. In 2 Cor. 4:16 Paul writes that God is renewing us daily. I may be slow but I am all in for obedience to a God who desires my renewal.   

- Brent Beakley